Our position is 17:54.354N 62:51.466W

We left Statia in good order on Thursday as planned and set sail to clear the end of the oil pipeline dock. The wind had stayed in the East, but was quite changeable along the side of the island and we didn’t want to give away anything to leeward. This resulted in having to navigate through all the waiting tankers, which we were hoping were still anchored, and doing a quick 360 degree turn to avoid obstructing a tug towing an oil barge.  The strategy paid off and once we cleared the oil traffic we had a fast and boisterous close fetch under double reefed main and small jib to St Barts.

We had hoped that perhaps we might be able to tie up in the harbour at Gustavia but St Barts is where everyone who is anyone goes for Christmas and New Year. The contrast between this island and any of the others we had been to was apparent from quite a long way out. Mega motor yachts were scattered far and wide across the outer anchorages. When we got closer we could see that the harbour was also crammed to bursting with what were, to all intents and purposes, small ships interspersed occasionally with a super yacht, looking rather dwarfed. We headed back into the outer anchorage, where closer into the shore there were more boats of our kind

St Barts is a small, French island, and until the end of 2011 was a member of the EU. However this did not entitle them to European money as they are too rich! From 1 January 2012 they have managed to achieve something David Cameron would probably give his eye teeth for  - they are leaving the EU but retaining those bits and benefits they choose to, which surprisingly also includes the Euro as their currency. Also, unlike the other islands, the population is predominately white as there was no slavery here because there were no big sugar plantations. They now concentrate on top end tourism. I tried to persuade Ted to buy me a Gucci bag from the shop on the front but he was having none of it, and I had no better luck next door at Cartiers. Back at the boat our peaceful sundowners were disturbed by the sound of helicopters landing on anchored boats

It was a very long, rather damp, dinghy ride into the harbour every time we wanted to go ashore so we spent Friday reading the tourist information we had picked up  when we checked in, planning the next stages of the cruise, e-mailing, and fixing the macerator pump (Ted).  However that was the last day we had an internet connection (it appeared to have been switched off for the holiday) so it was just as well we grabbed the opportunity. The tourist information claimed there was a big yacht race round the island on New Year’s Eve so we went ashore early hoping to get some sight of it from a vantage point. In the event there seemed to be only a few entries, although they were impressive enough in terms of size (unsurprisingly), so not much to see. We had a look round the immediate area of the town and climbed to Fort Karl (for a period of time the island was Swedish as the French swopped it for Gothenburg and the Swedes built 3 forts to protect themselves from the marauding British!) in order to see the racing yachts going past, then it was back to town to catch the chandler before they closed for the afternoon. We were able to take advantage of a price reduction on some oldish charts of the Bahamas, but having used all our cash, and being saddled with them to carry around, meant we postponed our planned food shopping trip – something we were going to regret later. When we made it back in for the shopping a lot of stuff, including bread, had sold out. However we were able to stock up on cheese and wine.

We had thought to eat ashore and then stay on for the live music on the dock and the fireworks, which were being let off from Fort Oscar. However we had not made any attempt to identify a suitable restaurant and when we got ashore the choice seemed to be either 200 euro menus or beef burgers. Guess which one we opted for! Back on the dock we listened to the music (the live band was resting, their sets only seemed to last about half an hour and then a 2 and a half hour rest!) and wandered up and down wondering if we could join any of the parties on the mega boats. We chatted to a couple who were part of the crew of one boat. (There wasn’t a party on their boat but they were expected to provide brunch between 3 and 6 the next morning) They told us that their boat had been chartered by an indulgent Brazilian couple and their current guests were 12 spoiled teenagers. The couple owned their own ship and had also chartered a second boat, presumably for overspill guests. I couldn’t help wondering how they made their money if they could afford to squander it in that way.

At midnight all the boats sounded their hooters, which was quite impressive. The fireworks were spectacular – but what would you expect and when they were over we headed back to our little boat. Just after arriving back we had an indication that perhaps 2012 is going to be particularly lucky for us, as the heavens opened and there was the mother and father of a rain storm. It must have put a terrible damper on the celebrations on the dock and the bouncers guarding the motor cruisers gang planks.